The Min­is­ter for Vet­er­ans’ Affairs and Min­is­ter for Defence Per­son­nel, Alan Grif­fin, and Mem­ber for Solomon, Dami­an Hale, today announced that 57 of the 61 Defence hous­es sched­uled for demo­li­tion at Lar­rakeyah Bar­racks in Dar­win will be saved.

Mr Hale said, “Dar­win is expe­ri­enc­ing a hous­ing short­age and the com­mu­ni­ty would rather see these hous­es reused than demol­ished”.

Mr Grif­fin said, “The con­struc­tion indus­try has made great advances in recent times, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of new and inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy which will allow the homes to be removed with­out com­pro­mis­ing the safe­ty and secu­ri­ty of the base and the fam­i­lies that live there”.

“After a com­pet­i­tive ten­der process, a con­trac­tor has been locat­ed with spe­cial­ist trail­ers equipped with a hydraulic lift­ing mech­a­nism to raise and low­er the hous­es in about 60 sec­onds.

“This means that all 57 hous­es are sched­uled to be removed from Lar­rakeyah Bar­racks before the start of the wet sea­son.

“Local res­i­dents will see some changes to gates, fences and land­scap­ing in the vicin­i­ty of the exit gate dur­ing the removal process.

“Once removed, the hous­es will be on-sold by the con­trac­tor, while the remain­ing four homes which are not suit­able for relo­ca­tion will be demol­ished,” Mr Grif­fin said.

Regard­ing Defence hous­ing at RAAF Dar­win, the Gov­ern­ment has arranged a meet­ing with the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Gov­ern­ment and has com­menced nego­ti­a­tions with oth­er inter­est­ed par­ties to ensure the max­i­mum num­ber of homes can be moved and refur­bished for use by the local Dar­win com­mu­ni­ty.

Mr Grif­fin said, “Indi­ca­tions from Defence are that a large major­i­ty of the 395 hous­es at RAAF Dar­win will be suit­able for relo­ca­tion, and Dar­win res­i­dents can be assured that the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment is com­mit­ted to ensur­ing they are avail­able to be used in the Ter­ri­to­ry”.

“Cur­rent Defence plan­ning indi­cates that the land to be vacat­ed at RAAF Dar­win is required for con­tin­gency pur­pos­es for Defence into the future.

“Dami­an Hale has made strong rep­re­sen­ta­tions to me on both of these issues over a num­ber of months, I am impressed with him as a strong local mem­ber who deliv­ers for his con­stituents includ­ing and most impor­tant­ly Defence per­son­nel,” Mr Grif­fin said.

Mr Hale said, “This is a good result for the Ter­ri­to­ry. These hous­es are need­ed with­in our local com­mu­ni­ty and I’m glad to see the Gov­ern­ment under­stands that”.